Talk:B.Y.O.B. (song)/Archive 1

Genre
I think the genre should be changed to Thrash Metal.--99.252.89.118 (talk) 23:20, 22 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I think this is only your opinion. It needs really good sources. (Ibaranoff24 (talk) 15:05, 27 April 2009 (UTC))

Why "Bring Your Own Bombs"?
Why does this page (And also in the tracklist in Mezmerize) merit to be called "B.Y.O.B (Bring Your Own Bombs)" when "ATWA" or "A.D.D." are just under their acronyms? AFAIK, BYOB with this undertitle have never appeared anywhere official? /Hugoflug 22:58, 22 January 2006 (UTC)

Tihs song merits being called by its acronym because that is the way the song is written on the back of the album. Dylanga 01:01, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Deletion?
I don't think this song is important enough to have a Wikipedia page. It was a minor hit at best, definitely not really that noteworthy. Also, the lyrics picked seem to have been specifically picked out of the song for their POV.


 * I'm fairly sure that all singles are worthy of articles.. This article may not look like much now, but it's likely to improve in the future. --Dalkaen 05:49, September 3, 2005 (UTC)
 * Hardly a minor hit, it broke the top 30 of the Billboard 100 and reached the top 5 for both the Mainstream and Modern rock charts. Very impressive for a hard rock act. Pasboudin 20:39, 5 September 2005 (UTC)


 * Of course you won't get a "neutral point of view" from system lyrics", they are political. System is one of the most politcal bands out there today. So quotes of the lyrics are bound not to be "neutral", our job is to report on thier politics in a netural way. --Notenderwiggin 01:37, 23 February 2006 (UTC)


 * I'm gonna talk on the section, "Minor hit." It won a Grammy. That means, basically, that it was the biggest hard rock song of 2005. And I agree with Notenderwiggin for the POV. --Gophergun 18:12, 10 March 2006 (UTC)


 * Not only that it's the band's sole Top 40 hit in America! Doc Strange 18:20, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Sending the Poor?
I have to take a couple of assumptions here before I get to the meat of my beef. Assumption 1: In the line, "Why do they always send the poor?" I am assuming "they" means government, if not the U.S. government in particular. Assumption 2: The song is a very thinly disguised protest against the U.S. operations in the Middle East.

Let's look at how "poor" soldiers are. I'll focus on U.S. servicemembers, since I work at a U.S. military facility, and am reasonably familiar with military pay and compensation. Further, we'll look at a typical Army Private, pay grade E-2, with one year's service. It is very unlikely that a new, fresh recruit just out of boot camp would be sent straight into combat operations. So we're looking at a typical 18-19 year old Private, living off base in civilian housing.

The standard monthly pay for an E-2 with 1 years service time is $1,384.50 Multiplied by 12 months gives you $16,661 for a year's worth of service. That's not exactly earning a lot of money, but we're not done yet. Next you add in Housing Allowances. This is $755 a month. Then there is a Subsistence Allowance, $267.18 a month. Add in the base pay together with the two allowances, comes to an income each year of $28,880.16. Know many 19 year old kids that make that kind of money legally?

Now, the song is about sending folks to war. There are further allowances gained when deployed, like Imminent Danger Pay. IDP is currently $225 a month. If you're married, you also qualify for a Family Separation Allowance, $250 a month (we won't include the FSA in this study). Plus, all income earned by enlisted members in a combat area is TAX FREE. Additional money the servicemember gets to take home.

Not including the IDP, the Private gets $28,880.16 in pay for a single year. That's not even the final, bottom line. The Department of Defense then calculates the average citizen's tax burden for $28,880.16, then adds the amount of estimated tax to the Servicemember's earnings, so that the NET pay becomes $28,880.16, making the gross pay $31,044.72. Now consider that servicemembers use commisarry and exchanges on post that have reduced prices on food, goods, and services. Plus members (and their families) get free medical. That's a pretty sweet deal, don't you think?

If you are interested, go to, the military compensation website.

U.S. SOLDIERS ARE NOT POOR!!! Keep up the good work, troops. We love you, no matter what geeks like System says! --JRed 18:31, 5 October 2005 (UTC)


 * Well that's exactly the point :) Only people in need would be tempted to kill, enforce authority or even die for that amount of money. It's funny how you couldn't see that you were so far from scoring for your team, which happens to be the US Army, flooding us with income figures here :) And besides, i think it would actually be more poetic if US soldiers were poor, then at least we wouldn't think they were doing it for the money. Oh and yes: Keep up the good work, thats what you are paid for!--Zama Zalotta 20:11, 15 November 2005 (UTC)


 * I'm going to delete the argument. J rath may have a point, that is arguement, and doesn't neccesarily belong on the main page, or the talk page.  The lyrics are as stated, if he wants to state that they are biased and link to sources then fine.  There should not be a 4 page reffutal of thier assertionon that the poor fight wars on the talk page.  And they don't bother disguising the fact that this is a protest song, or thier politics.  --Notenderwiggin 01:37, 23 February 2006 (UTC)


 * Jred, congrats on wasting yours and everyone else's time. This article (and subsequent talk page) is for an encyclopedic overview of this particular song, not a soapbox for you to spout off how you don't agree with the lyrics. Use your myspace page for your editorial views from now on. 204.115.253.51 19:29, 13 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Oh. my. god. This is not our opinion. this is a lyrics to a POP SONG. Like my anonymous ISP freind above here, i agree that you are wasting your time by attacking a song by System of a Down on Wikipedia. And you're reading to heavy into this, Tanakian and Malakian never went out and said that "they"=US Troops. For all we know "why do they always send the poor" could be a line about ice cream vendors. Doc Strange 18:25, 4 August 2007 (UTC)


 * It is about soldiers. There are soldiers that do not belong to the US military. Some of those soldiers are poor. Then again, poverty does not necessarily mean poverty of material goods. *runs for cover*--89.49.135.197 (talk) 00:00, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

They could be talking about people as poor in comparison to the government.65.175.224.108 (talk) 21:23, 27 November 2008 (UTC)

Notable Lyrics
I previously changed "we all live in a fascist nation" to "we don't live in a fascist nation." The lyrics were changed back. Please, look at the band's website before you change it. There it even says my lyrics are right. &mdash;The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.152.179.13 (talk • contribs).

This article mentions Michael Moore concerning the lyrics "Why don't Presidents fight the war. Why do they always send the poor?".

The line "Why do they always send the poor?" echoes a similar insight posed by filmmaker Michael Moore in his documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 about a significant number of soldiers serving in the Iraq War hailing from poor backgrounds.

That sounds really similar to Black Sabbath's War Pigs. SOAD were obviously influenced by Black Sabbath, they covered Snowblind and I heard them mention it in an interveiw or something. Here are the lyrics:

Politicians hide themselves away They only started the war Why should they go out to fight? They leave that role to poor

The lyrics are only slightly altered. I think Black Sabbath should get some credit. --Daveyboy1077 21:51, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

Iraq War?
System of a Down is on record saying that the song was written to question the integrity of wars in general, not necessarily the Iraq War. I changed "Iraq War" to "War", and added that most people interpret the lyrics as protesting the Iraq War in particular. I've also added the interpretation about military recuiting practices, which you will hear a lot of on fan forums. ElijahTheProphet 10:27, 28 August 2006 (UTC)


 * Yet the lyrics suggest dancing in the desert... 204.115.253.51 19:31, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

Well, Im pretty sure that "those people in the desert" will be fighting fer a long time and nothing any body can do will stop it. And there have been tons of Wars fought in the desert so how can we know that its talking about Iraq? BYOB is a parody of the acronym Bring Your Own Booze/Bottles used on wedding invitations to show that the host does not mind alchohal but it will not be served and you must bring your own to the party. Bring Your Own Bomb suggest that we, meaning americans, are just coming in with our own bombs joining the "party" and dacing with other poltics. Quote from the song "Everybody's goin to the party have a real good time. Dancing in the desert blowin up the sunshine." Hahahaha and i just saw that sunshine looks and awful lot like moonshine. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ronaldinho and Yona (talk • contribs) 15:50, 1 November 2007 (UTC)


 * I once read an interview with one of the band members. In it, said member (can't remember, I'm afraid) expressed how annoyed he was that people constantly interpreted SOAD songs as songs specifically targeted at the United States government.--89.49.135.197 (talk) 00:00, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

Wha??
"The title is said one time right before the main riff enters."

Am I the only one not hearing this? Masterskill 02:58, 27 December 2006 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure it depends what program you rip the CD from or download from. There will be a few miliseconds cut from the begining and end of stuff.

I presume that "the main riff" refers to the point when the full band enters after the guitar-only introduction. (This precludes any talk of "miliseconds ['sic'] cut from the begining ['sic']", without even beginning discussion about periods of time, especially those as small as milliseconds.) Before this, there is a deep vocal sound, arguably nothing more complex than a "yo", "you", etc. --81.141.216.117 (talk) 21:27, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

.jpg
It said "B.Y.O.B. (Bring Your Own Bombs).jpg" on the info area, I deleted the ".jpg" bit --Thunderhorse 21:28, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Byob.jpg
Image:Byob.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

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BetacommandBot 08:32, 27 October 2007 (UTC)

Suggestions for further editing
Is there really a need for the UK CDR version of a cover? Is that a joke, or did the band really release a version like that in the UK? (I wouldn't be surprised, actually, after "Steal This Album"). Perhaps someone who knows more can comment?


 * It's a promo release, given out for free. I'm not surprised it looks like crap. [[Image:Flag_of_Poland.svg|20px]] gracz54 (talk) 12:04, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

The reference to "Top 100 riffs" of Total Guitar should be considered for removal, or expansion. (Which list? When? Who's authority?) I couldn't find anything about it on their site.

I don't know if the cleanup is complete, but the "cleanup required" banner could probably be removed soon.

Genocide in Darfur.
"It is a politically charged song and was written to protest the Genocide in Darfur." Can someone tell me why BYOB has to do with Darfur? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.252.46.40 (talk) 16:09, 3 May 2008 (UTC)


 * As far as I am aware, nothing.\m/ on (talk) 20:19, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

Rock Band version
I was wondering if the version for Rock Band is the clean or explicit version? Either way, I think it's worth mentioning which one is used in the article. Newmansan (talk) 16:42, 5 August 2008 (UTC)
 * It's the clean one. They definitely censored it. :D --Invader037 (talk) 21:08, 17 March 2009 (UTC)